Barrett Global Explorers Grant

The following materials must be submitted to the ONSA office or Laura.Sells@asu.edu by noon on the deadline:

• Personal resume that lists extracurricular activities and work experience,
• Unofficial transcripts,
• Three letters of recommendation, and
• Five-page project outline.

Proposal Guidelines

The written proposal may be no more than five pages long.  In terms of format, it must be double-spaced, in 12-point Times Roman font, with one-inch margins. A maximum of three graphics are allowed. The proposal should provide a clear outline of the project and include the following elements:

• Clearly stated focus and objectives
• Explanation of the project’s relevance to the applicant’s academic and professional goals
• Description of the proposed methodology, plan of study (including pre-travel research), and research activities to be undertaken during the project
• Clear travel itinerary, which must include a minimum of ten weeks of travel through at least five countries spread over at least three broad geographical regions or continents. 

Applicants must be available for interviews in early December, and they must be studying on the ASU campus during the entire spring semester to plan their trip prior to departure.

Developing a Project

In developing the project proposal, applicants should consider the following questions:

• What sites are most appropriate to your project? This should be detailed not only by cities in each country, but by the institutions, centers, sites, or persons you intend to visit in each.
• What questions do you have in mind which you hope will be answered at each site? Simply looking around is not sufficient; you need to begin your project with a hypothesis, looking for something.
• What project necessitates your immediate presence at a range of sites? Why can this research be undertaken only (or most appropriately) in person rather than by email or other distance-bridging technologies?
• Are there problems of access (to a country or to a specific site) that you will need to resolve before undertaking your research? These should be at least acknowledged, with a strategy for addressing these, in the proposal.
• Is this research feasible on the budget allocated?  Your choice of countries (and the attendant transportation and maintenance costs) will vary widely according to the project.
• Do the countries you have chosen conform to State Department and World Health Organization travel guidelines?

Applicants who do not seek the assistance of others are unlikely to be successful.  Prospective applicants should work closely with a faculty mentor develop workable ideas, gather suggestions for potential sites, and garner leads for contacts.  Applicants may also submit drafts of the application materials to ONSA for review prior to the deadline.

Procedures for Finalists

After committee review, approximately five finalists will be invited to submit an expanded project outline of no more than ten pages (following the above guidelines as to format and content).  Finalists will also prepare to orally defend the proposal before the selection committee in an interview, to be scheduled for early December. The selection committee will need the complete application at least seven days prior to the date of the scheduled selection interview. The deadline for finalists is mid-November.

Finalist interviews will consist of a ten-minute oral presentation by the student on the nature and significance of the proposed study (without the use of notes, handouts, computer presentations, slides, or other audio or visual aid); a round of questions about specific aspects of the proposal; and a round of questions designed to explore the student’s resourcefulness in dealing with hypothetical challenges based on previous grant recipients’ experiences.  Winners will be announced the day after the interviews, and the funded travel should commence immediately upon completion of the junior year.

Additional Requirements and Guidelines

• The proposed travel must span at least ten continuous weeks; the itinerary must include at least five different countries in at least three different regions or continents;
• Grant recipients must budget the amount to cover all expenses: Airfare should not constitute more than half the grant amount.
• Of the total grant amount, $750 will be withheld until the timely submission of the required final research reports and expenditure budget. Grant recipients are required to submit within sixty days following the completion of their travel-study projects a summary of their expenditures by the following categories: air travel, other travel, lodging, meals, and incidentals.
• Grant recipients must be advised that their grants will be reported to the IRS as required by law and may be subject to taxation.